Add Take Ownership Option in Right Click Context Menu of Windows 7

By Sandip Dedhia on January 21, 2009
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Windows 7 Take Ownership Option

We have written guide on How to take ownership and grant permission in windows 7 which explains how to do it manually. But I am sure most of the users won’t be happy with manual method considering amount of time and clicks it takes to perform the task of changing ownership of files/folders or objects in windows 7.

What if you can have Take Ownership option straight under your right click context menu ? Don’t you think it will be faster and easier to change ownership? If answer is yes then here is method to get Take Ownership option under to right click menu.

Add “Take Ownership” Option in Right Click Context Menu

1. Download TakeOwnership.zip

2. Above zip file contains two reg (registry) files InstallTakeOwnership.reg and RemoveTakeOwnership.reg.

3. Double Click on InstallTakeOwnership.reg to install Take Ownership option in context menu

Install Take Ownership

Screenshot of Take Ownership Option in Right Click Context Menu

Take Ownership Option in Right Click Context Menu

In order to remove Take Ownership option double click on RemoveTakeOwnership.reg.

Posted in , | Tagged , , | 102 Responses
Sandip Dedhia

Sandip Dedhia

Sandip Dedhia is the founder of Blogsdna.com, he loves to write on technology, gadgets & web services. At Blogsdna you can read his Windows tutorials, free and useful software related articles. He is on twitter too @sandipnd View author profile

  • http://www.msucusa.com Wust

    Thank you very much! It really helps!

  • Win7 Luver

    Fantastic!!!

  • Darkcide

    This helped so much thank you!

  • Shaun

    It didn’t work for me. It installed correctly and the registry values have been added, but it doesn’t appear in my context menu, even after restarting my computer. Is there anything else I should try?

  • jeremy

    Finally,Thank you so very much it worked great.

  • keith vassallo

    hi; how long does it take, i’m working on C/Users/Keith, because in it i have the App. Data folders that arer locked for me

  • dee

    wow…amazing thank alot

  • Pingback: Windows 7 Take Ownership & Grant Permissions to Access Files & Folder

  • Rodney

    OMG!! Thank you! This helped my delete old files while going from Vista to Windows 7!!

  • Dan

    Excellent, thanks very much. This problem has been bugging me for ages and this little program certainly seemed to do the trick.

  • Stian

    Thank you very much! I spent hours with no success, until I found these great tips. Super-easy to change permission to folders now…jiii-ha!

  • Atrox Smith

    Perfect- exactly what I needed to run some statistical and bibliography software- thanks a ton!!!!

  • JoPfef

    MANY thanks!!! Couldn’t get rid of some old BlackBerry files, and this did the trick! Now I can keep things much more tidy. :-)

  • Marinus

    A life saver! Thanks!

  • sirjohng

    Brilliant, works like a dream.

  • CPR2

    didn’t work for me. “unable to display current owner” cannot be changed. HELP!!!

  • Goldcds

    Tried doing this manually and could not figure it out but this worked great, Thanks

  • A Guest

    tried manually following instructions from another website, but this was easy and worked first time, lifesaver. 5/5

  • Mr-aussie

    it worked thanks so much!

  • Rob

    holy mackerel! holy smokes! and holy smoked mackerel!

    first i tried the manual way, and that was much too difficult
    and confusing. my head was spinning.

    so i tried the take ownership add-on and it worked a charm.
    thanks a bunch for telling me about it.

    why couldn’t M$ make it that simple in the first place? harrumph! :)
    i was so used to xp and i never expected this type of hassle.

    a couple of quick questions:

    is it possible to undo any single folder’s ownership?

    and if i un-install the take ownership app, will i lose my
    ownership access for the folders whose access i changed?

  • Jack

    Very cool. And simple. I like simple. I spent almost two hours reassigning ownership before I found the blog. Great work!

  • Anonymous

    Super stuff! I’ve been battling with Windows 7 permissions for months. So often a file that has apparently, at random, chosen a different permission status carries its status forward into another folder and infects that folder too and the only way to move contained files is to individually set the permissions …and sometimes that doesn’t work!

    I tried running Command prompts for access, but that didn’t work, but your little ownership gadget has made things so much easier!

    Success to you and I’ll be sure to give you a dig on my blog.

  • Judyk31

    I love this and it worked like magic! However, now Outlook is acting up and is very slow switching between folders. Advice was given to take out add-ins in Outlook but I need Administrator permission and all that appears in the menu choices is Take Ownership. How can I once again get Administrator rights for Office/Outlook?

  • Judyk31

    Update on my comment of slow Outlook. I uninstalled Outlook Connector. Worked a treat!

  • Jonclif

    This is a wonderful piece of software. I never did manage to delete files even though I tried many times and followed your guidance and that elsewhere. Although I appeared to be the owner and had the correct permissions, files and folders just would not delete. Now your brilliant software has done trick. Thank you!

  • lkjh

    Thank you very much!!!!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7JPU7XRX7P7TN2M3XPVOV7QNGM sulayman

    THANKS guys, it worked.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7JPU7XRX7P7TN2M3XPVOV7QNGM sulayman

    I have a problem in here,

    when am using ms word, and i want to change a font, when i click the drop down button, i will see the fonts list and it will AUTOMATICALLY close, when i click again it will close and it will show ‘not responding’ VERY VERY quickly and it will dissappear,

    not only ms word but for ALL my programmes, as long as i click a drop down button, it says ‘not responding’

    Do u know how to fix this?

  • Laggy23

    oh thank you very much! i almost had to do that by hand 7000 times but this saved my arse. great stuff

  • Michael Morris8968

    Amazing. Got control of my pictures but can’t set the picture as desktop back ground! NEED HELP!

  • Hyperion

    Superb!
    I stood dumbfunded for an afternoon trying to remove files after an install of win7. Everything sorted with your help mate! Things like these are lifesavers.

  • AustinGuy

    Didn’t work for me. After I took ownership of a folder, I opened a file in that folder using Excel. When I tried to save the file in that same folder I got an error message that the file and folder were read only.

  • Graeme

    Simple but so very effective !!!

  • Jrjarvis

    I’ve been doing it manually for months, only occassionally successfully, and each time it only lasts a few days. This seemed like a perfect fit, but after loading & running the program, the little blue box in properties is still filled blue and I am still getting the “read only go to file manager to change permissions” command. Help!!!

  • talisman

    installed TakeOwnership yesterday and it instantly worked. Ran Easytransfer from XP machine and found that Takownership had vanished from right click menu. Again installed takeownership from same download as before but it does not appear in right click menu and obviously does not work. Any clues, I am desperate!!!!

  • Jmc1959

    Doesn’t install, just opens up in notepad when you click on either of the 2 files in the TakeOwnership.zip folder

  • Bloo

    With some systems, you must hold the left shift while you right click to get this to pop up. Oddly, it doesn’t seem to be able to do whole HDs at a time.

  • Ironpipe

    Ironpipe
    THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
    I tried for four day to get this how to. It took me less than 30 sec as soon as I received this from you.
    Again I THANK YOU.
    Ironpipe

  • Captmilkdud

    Absolutely FANTASTIC!!
    I was about to get a concussion from banging my head against the wall trying all the other methods found on the Internet to get this done. Just a couple of clicks and BAM!! You’re little program fixed it.

    So many thank yous to you I’d need a super computer to count them all!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000023869224 Arnold Diez

    worked perfectly!! too bad i already deleted the videos that i cannot play :)

  • Mainkill1

    I reinstalled windows and my user folder was locked up to only my name before now non of that worked on a fresh install and I unlocked my folders in no time flat, first trying 1 video happy has hell, backed out did my whole download folder, almost fainted from joy,

    Thank you

  • Mal Bennett

    It worked perfectly – brilliant!!! Thank you very much

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1061189922 Fadrick Paiva

    I really have to thank you for this tweak.. I installed win7 after wonderful years with my beloved winXp. Unfortunelly someone at home messed with my computer and I had to install the new OS.. Too bad it’s so complicated to use after migrating from Xp to 7. Thankfully I’ve found some goodies will help to take over this app. Thank you very much, you just saved after hours trying to figure out how to change all my folders and files.

  • Paul of wordwright

    Yes, worked well for me with windows 7. Many thanks!

  • Irish-tricksta

    works great, saved the contents of 2 hards using this.

    huge help

  • Oliver1989

    Worked a treat!! :D

    Thank you so much. I mean, I really appreciate people sharing these tools with their fellow users, if the world functioned like this, it would be a happy place….(for nerds :) )

    Once again, Thank you!

  • Illegal-Pete

    Worked perfectly! Ended months of fury! I despise Microsoft’s over-bearing mother attitude. I give free assistance and advise any time I can to my neighbors and on some forums and I appreciate those like yourself who do so. I will share this fantastic tool as well.

  • Blanchflower

    Thanks for take ownership, It worked perfectly, I was about to re-install when I saw your solution to remove a stubborn folder.

    Brilliant Thankyou.

  • Ansuz Isaz

    Oh, thank saint sex and sanity. D:
    This is an absolute god-send. I’ve been trying to get rid of the junk that come with every installation, and the permission issues was making cleaning up my computer a pain.

    Thanks for making my technical life a little bit easier. =D

  • Avin Ramc

    Thanks so much! I wish this feature was not so cumbersome….

  • Rtyper

    Worked pretty well but Doesn’t quite fix my problem, now when I try to delete my file it tells me I need permission from myself to do it :/

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rituparno-Chakraborty/1245556921 Rituparno Chakraborty

     this is fantabulous…awesome…gr8 work…i lost hope…thankx thankx buddy.

  • Joe Stoddard

    JMC probably too late to help but you need to extact the zipped files with an actual zip extractor – WinZip,  IzArc, etc.  You can’t just open the Zip archive.  What you’re seeing there is not the file, it’s the compressed (zipped)  version – so it won’t execute (but will open in Notepad as you’ve discovered) .   Google IzArc – it’s open source/free. 

  • Aliranchi2010

    thank you very much. this is very help full for me  

  • Anonymous

    Hmmm… I’ve always had  “Take Ownership” . Still didn’t  give me access on everything. Oh well.

  • http://twitter.com/ruffocracia Ruffo

    GOD! I loved this
    I’ve formated my computer, and I forgot to remove some “local network sharing” permissions, so the fresh win7 install didn’t allowed me to do anything with my folder music… a lot of music! but now I can and I’m infinitely happy

  • Curly8081

    I have been trying to delete two folders for quite some time due to not having permissions. I ran across this take ownership utility. I ran it and the two folders are gone, yay yay. Thanks so much for this utility.
    Again thanks,
    Curly

  • http://cyberfish.110mb.com Jake

    Thank you!
    It installed without any complications and overall saves me of slaying those ugly monsters that reside in the Security tab (I keed :D) over and over again when trying to take ownership of a folder!

  • Melahmed

    hi. i just installed this and tried one of the files and it says i dont have permission to view. i am at a loss as to how i can access my folders/files again.

  • Maj P

    Totaly don’t work for me.
    Instalation is very easy indeed but this thing doesn’t grand me no permission to thous f*cking *.dll files!

  • Olmanrivah

    Thanks…Maybe I can tolerate Windows 7 now…..

  • Mainktheripper

    thank’s you, nice work !!!………………….

  • Nethiniplz

    works like a charm. Thank you heaps!

  • Tanvir

    Thanks Thanks Thanks and more Thanks

  • Tan If

    I have been trying alot of ways for months to solve this problem even from my laptop company support but nothing solved my problem.  Finally this has helped me recover my thousands of files in mintues.  I just wanna say many thanks to the person who created this…

  • Jos B

    Didn’t think it worked for me. I took ownership and then changed permissions but still couldn’t see my folders. Turns out I had to go into folder settings and Show Hidden Folders before I could see them. Thanks!

  • Shoaibzb96

    Thanks So Much..Itx Worked FoR Me…

  • Qwerty

    THANK YOU! so much finally i am the real Admin of my own home pc..smh..we shouldnt need this but we do, thank you.

  • Roberto Smaldone

    Thank you!!! Worked like a charm. I had over 40 folders and this just saved me so much time.

  • Marcio Marques

    Thank you very much!! I could install my executable .jar easily after installing it.

  • Ian

    Didn’t work for me. Tried to “Take Ownership” but still could not delete the file.

  • Andrew

    Amazing. Thank you, this has been plaguing me for MONTHS. Brilliant.

  • Crazy

    Thanx alot man
    you are super

  • Pgresle

    Merci beaucoup pour toutes ces informations très utiles
    Thank a lot for many utiles informations

    Salut…
    By now

  • Geoff inCoffs Harbour

    Thank you, thank you, thank you. You too Oliver1989, more sharing more caring, what a great place this would be.

  • Priyo

    doesn’t work for me :-(
    It because the files on the server and not in my local computers

  • MortenT

    Hi Joe
    When I extract your Zip file with IzArc I get:
    InstallTakeOwnership.reg and
    RemoveTakeOwnership.reg.
    But they are not executeble, they open i Notepad

  • Pcf

    Thank you. Is the best solution I found !!! You did it !!!

  • Cheadlecat

    Thanks – somehow my file permissions got “messed up” when I switched hard drives and reinstalled Windows 7.  In a home setting, the Windows 7 permissions is a real “pain in the @$$” and overkill.  Thanks for the nice shortcut! 

  • Bratttboy

    Absolutely brilliant!!! Thank you for this tool. 

  • Andrey-red1

    ????? ?????.??????? ???????? ??? ???????? ??

  • Greenergrass

     I Love you !!!!

  • Tom

    Excellent, this worked where the GUI didn’t :-)

  • Biju

    Good Work!! Thanks very much for sharing!! :)

  • Magayfer

    thank you it was usefull
    Magayfer

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001410909772 Sd Bab

    It worked perfectly – brilliant!!! Thank you very much

  • GWR – 1936

    What a SUPER app. Thank you so very much. It has solved my problem of switching from Windows XP to Windows 7.

    I was ready to return to XP until I found your app,

    A thousand thanks.

  • Joe

    Worked for me. Thank you very much for taking the time to provide this. Windows 7 drove me nuts with this ownership/permission madness.
    Much appreciated.

  • DJ40

    Fantastic tip. Can’t thank you enough. Now if someone could solve the “Win 7 desktop icons rearainging themselves at every start up” problem I’d be in 7th heaven.

  • NinjaPineapple

    Didn’t work. :( Got an error.

  • Moin Khan

    Wonderful! Brother you have saved me a hell of a time and thousands and millions of clicks. Thank you, Thank you so much. God Bless you.

  • helpmeplz

    i have tried to get this to work maybe someone knows the problem, i have a computer with 2 harddrives when i switched from XP to 7 i unplugged the second so that the information stored on it wouldnt be replaced when i plugged it back it says that i do not have permission to view those files, its got all my pictures and music from the last 7 years on it locked away in its tiny little brain, can someone PLEASE help, metalunixox@gmail.com

  • DouginSC

    Did you try to put that drive in an external USB enclosure and use it as a simple USB drive?

  • DouginSC

    Will this registry change work for WinXP, too?

  • sophe

    Thank you thank you!! I was facing manually dealing with thousands of photos… as Oliver1989 said, worked a treat!! Thanks again!!!

  • Freakingwindows7

    It installed correctly but it doesn’t seem to be working. I tried it on visual c# studio but it still says that I don’t have access.

  • Ken

    Magic! Thank you.

  • wilkby

    when i run the extracted file, i get this output:

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*shellrunas]
    @=”Take Ownership”
    “NoWorkingDirectory”=”"
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*shellrunascommand]
    @=”cmd.exe /c takeown /f “%1″ && icacls “%1″ /grant administrators:F”
    “IsolatedCommand”=”cmd.exe /c takeown /f “%1″ && icacls “%1″ /grant administrators:F”
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDirectoryshellrunas]
    @=”Take Ownership”
    “NoWorkingDirectory”=”"
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDirectoryshellrunascommand]
    @=”cmd.exe /c takeown /f “%1″ /r /d y && icacls “%1″ /grant administrators:F /t”
    “IsolatedCommand”=”cmd.exe /c takeown /f “%1″ /r /d y && icacls “%1″ /grant administrators:F /t”

    i’m not sure what’s going wrong????

  • Ron Crockett

    Wow this is a wonderful little utility, it sure saved my bacon last week! I had spent 6 hours trying to solve permissions problems of my own causing and this fixed it in seconds!

  • Misch Hasch

    it doesnt work. still when i check its read only… whats this program exactly for?

  • LiquidState

    Dude you are a BEAST. Thank you so much

  • Chuck

    Thank you, thank you again and again for this tip and trick. It has saved me hours of frustration. VERY much appreciated.

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